The City of Constantine: Mythologization of the Capital
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52575/2687-0967-2026-53-1-59-69Keywords:
Constantinople, Constantine the Great, Church historians, mythologization, capitalAbstract
The legend of the foundation and consecration of Constantinople as the capital and new center of the Roman world took shape over decades. The process of myth-making regarding Constantinople developed in parallel with the formation of its capital status, which was filled with real content only by the middle of the 5th century. At that time, there was an urgent need to connect the historical significance of Constantine, primarily for Christianity, with the new, already established capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, which bore his name. Church historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Philostorgius attempted to satisfy this need, attributing in their narratives the foundation of Constantinople as the capital to Constantine the Great. However, neither Constantine's intention to found a new capital of the Roman Empire, nor to proclaim it the New Rome, nor to make Constantinople the Christian capital is discernible in the sources of the 4th century. It was not until a century after the city foundation that this idea began to be introduced into the public consciousness and consequently was firmly entrenched in historical literature, due to the aforementioned church historians, who mythologized some historical facts.
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Vanderspoel J. 1995. Themistius and the Imperial Court: Oratory, Civic Duty, and Paideia from Constantius to Theodosius. Ann Arbor. 280 p.
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